Editing 2709: Solar System Model
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Created by a DETERMINED ELECTRON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
This comic parodies the analogy of {{w|Bohr model|early-20th century models of atomic structure}} to the structure of the solar system. Electrons were thought to be orbiting the nucleus "like planets around a sun" until it was discovered that their locations are probabilistic. The comic flips this on its head: instead of the atomic structure model lacking a known causal relationship, it is now the planetary system that is quantum mechanical in nature, split into probabilistic {{w|Atomic orbital|orbitals}}. | This comic parodies the analogy of {{w|Bohr model|early-20th century models of atomic structure}} to the structure of the solar system. Electrons were thought to be orbiting the nucleus "like planets around a sun" until it was discovered that their locations are probabilistic. The comic flips this on its head: instead of the atomic structure model lacking a known causal relationship, it is now the planetary system that is quantum mechanical in nature, split into probabilistic {{w|Atomic orbital|orbitals}}. | ||
− | [[Miss Lenhart]] is shown here to be teaching an astronomy class, and claims that it was thought that the planets moved around the sun like electrons around the nucleus before this model was superseded by the probabilistic quantum mechanical view of orbital locations for ''planetary'' movement. | + | [[Miss Lenhart]] is shown here to be teaching an astronomy class, and claims that it was thought that the planets moved around the sun like electrons around the nucleus before this model was superseded by the probabilistic 'quantum mechanical' view of orbital locations for ''planetary'' movement. This suggests that in her reality not only do electrons have distinct bodies that orbit a nucleus, but also that atomic structure was known before the correct planetary one. |
+ | In reality, the description of probabilistic orbitals is applied to the electrons in an atom; quantum uncertainty effects are not large enough to notice at the planetary scale{{Citation needed}}. However, such a concept has been prominently featured in the video game ''{{w|Outer Wilds}}'', with its Quantum Moon. | ||
− | + | The title text expounds on one consequence of planets having probabilistic locations: they would spend some time in the lower-probability locations closer to or further from the Sun. The Earth's real orbit is in a {{w|Circumstellar habitable zone|habitable zone}} where the temperature allows life as we know to exist. A probabilistic Earth would spend most of its time in the habitable zone, which is why life exists, then suffer mass extinctions when the Earth's position is outside the habitable zone. | |
− | + | ==Transcript== | |
− | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
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− | + | Early 20th century models of the solar system imagined that planets circled the sun like electrons in an atom. | |
− | + | We now know planets have no precise location, but instead occupy probabilistic ''orbitals''… | |
− | + | ASTRONOMY | |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]] | ||
+ | [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]] | ||
[[Category:Physics]] | [[Category:Physics]] | ||
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